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Evander Kane was a little coy with the Winnipeg media on Saturday, as is often the case, but the 21-year-old was mostly in good spirits and ready to embark on the NHL’s 48-game schedule.

“It feels great to be back,” the left-winger said in the Jets dressing room following his first informal skate in Winnipeg. “It’s about time. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in this room. I’m looking forward to getting back playing.”

The 21-year-old made a couple of headlines during the lockout, whether it was his underwhelming performance in the KHL or the infamous Twitter picture of him holding stacks of cash atop a Las Vegas hotel. As usual, the 30-goal scorer said it was no big deal and understands why he’s a lightning rod for criticism in today’s social media world.

“It comes with the job description — some people more than others — but I’m pretty comfortable with who I am and I think the people are around me as well,” he said. “So I don’t really have to defend myself and fix that.”

Kane was quite comfortable in front of the cameras on Saturday, joking with the media on a variety of issues and sounding confident that good things are ahead for him and the Jets. He skated with his dad the last few weeks, figuring something would happen one way or the other by mid-January, and he’s ready to start earning the six-year, $31.5 million contract he signed about an hour before the lockout began in September.

“(My goals) are a little bit shortened with 48 games, but they’re still going to be high,” he said. “I won’t give you any exact numbers.”

It certainly won’t hurt if he’s playing alongside Olli Jokinen, who is expected to be his centre.

“He’s a big body presence with some skill up the middle,” Kane said. “I haven’t even skated with him yet, so we’ll see what happens, but I’m looking forward to getting to know him and hopefully playing with him.

“He’s obviously had a very successful career. He’s put up big numbers in the past, and hopefully we can rekindle that and put up some big numbers this year and the following (year).”

Kane may still be learning what works in the court of public opinion, but he obviously made the right choice by signing his new contract before the lockout. It happened during some lavish, last-minute spending by GMs across the league, and it probably won’t happen again for a while.

“With the circumstances, I thought it was a good idea to maybe sign before, just because they wanted to limit second-term contracts,” he said. “That was going on, and restrictive free agency and all that kind of stuff. I was happy to get a deal done, and it came together at the last minute.”

And now he’ll finally be able to start earning that money.

“There’s a lot of things I’d like to buy,” Kane said, “but we’ll have to save my money and see what happens in the future.”

Jets' Kane won't let criticism derail him

The 21-year-old left-winger made waves during the lockout with an underwhelming performance in the KHL and a Twitter picture of him holding stacks of money in Las Vegas, but it's all water under the bridge for the Vancouver native. He skated at MTS Centre on Saturday afternoon and then met with the media afterwards, joking around about Andrew Ladd’s Internet skills, his own new haircut and how he can’t wait to spend some of his fat, new contract.

“It feels great to be back,” he said. “It’s about time. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in this room. I’m looking forward to getting back playing.”

As always, the 30-goal scorer from last season will continue to let any criticism slide off his back.

“It comes with the job description — some people more than others — but I’m pretty comfortable with who I am and I think the people are around me as well, so I don’t really have to defend myself and fix that,”